'Sheer terror' as 4-year-old falls into Toronto subway gap

'You could only see one arm sticking up holding onto the platform'

Four-year-old Ava Buckareff is hardly aware, but her mother Julie is holding her little girl a little tighter after a terrifying experience on the subway.

"I hugged her. I held her. I cried for 45 minutes. Just the possibility of what could have happened," said Julie, remembering the fear and the terror that ensued when her daughter tried to step onto a subway train last Wednesday.

Here's what happened:

Ava was on her way home with her aunt and her older brother, Ethan.

When she stepped towards the open door, she fell between the subway train and the platform.

"She stepped in the gap and slid full through. You could only see one arm sticking up holding onto the platform. And her head," said Ethan.